Blog and website

I don't like having my blog and website separate. I've heard of some intriguing possibilities for combining them; unfortunately, I'm not eager to take the time to research and then implement the changes. It's fairly assumable that whatever I do will end up taking a LOT more time than I expect. Somehow computer things always do!

Writer of the week

A new author -- new to me, anyway! In fact, I don't know how I've missed out on her for so long.

In the last couple of weeks, I've read two books by Tracy (T. L.) Higley: Pompeii: City on Fire, and Guardian of the Flame. I found both of them to be engrossing and to bring the cultures in which they are set vividly to life.

I enjoyed the Pompeii book more, but that may merely reflect the fact that I prefer the era of the Roman Empire to that of the Egyptians.

I enjoyed poking around her website, too. Perhaps it seemed a bit busy, but then again, it is crammed full of interesting information and links.

E-publishing

I'm leaning more and more toward the idea that E-publishing is enough the 'wave of the future' as to make it a better choice than print publishing for an unknown author.

From what I hear, the publishing business today seems to have all but locked out new, unpublished authors. Of course, that's a degree of hyperbole, but there is some truth in it. The path to publishing went from:

1) Send your manuscript to a publishing company and someone will look at it and respond; to

2) Send your manuscript to a publishing company and it will be thrown in the trash after an overworked, overwhelmed intern has read the first few paragraphs; to

3) Publishing companies won't accept unsolicited manuscripts, so send it to an agent who will look at it and respond to you; to

4) Send it to an agent who will throw it in the trash after reading the first few paragraphs if it's not exactly the genre, voice, and mood they're looking for that morning; to

5) Reputable, successful agents might look at your manuscript if you are lucky enough to know someone who can recommend you to them.

Again, perhaps a dash of hyperbole, but only a dash!

Trying for a new record...

One of my biggest weaknesses is lack of self-discipline -- especially challenging for a writer! Periodically, either after I have been on a self-indulgence jag, or after a particularly busy period in my life comes to an end, I start Monday morning with fresh determination.

Unfortunately, I don't know that I've ever made it over a week, and perhaps not even as much as a week. So, today's day 2, and I'm trying for a new record... I'll consider myself to have achieved it if I'm still being disciplined and diligent and all those other good things on Friday.

The good thing about having a wonderfully unread blog is that no one will ask me on Friday how I'm doing!

Boy, do I appreciate God's unfailing grace and mercy.

Update on, well, everything!

Summer! Green, warm, fun, less stressful... Thanks, God!

Doug: Wonderful, as always. He's been spending time with some of the younger men at church in a mentoring-type capacity. I think it's great because he has a lot to give.

Tim: A homeschool graduate! It's so hard to believe that the 13 years (we started w/kindergarten) of homeschooling my firstborn have come to an end. He will be attending the University of Akron in the Fall and living in the Honors Dorm.

Myrale: We just finished the whole college search with Tim, and are just starting it with her. She will be a senior this fall. Except for any mid-stream adjustments next year, I have planned my last year of school and ordered my last homeschool books. How can something that has consumed and almost defined me for so long be coming to an end? (Ummm, just to be clear: this is amazement, not mourning or sorrow!)

Me: See above. As my life shifts into a different mode, I am hoping to spend more time on writing and more time on fitness. I also want to seek and find what service my great, gracious, and glorious God has for me.

Rats! Did it again!

The lament of the busy, inadequately committed blogger: "Oh, no! 'X' weeks have gone by since my last post. I was trying to do better."

Update: We narrowed Tim's choices down to five colleges. He's been accepted to all of them, and now we're just waiting to find out scholarship and financial aid numbers to see which makes most sense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

As my children keep pointing out to me, I've been neglectful...

Catch-up on what's been going on...

Busy this fall, still teaching the teen Bible studies, but without Jen's help; also teaching a weekly fiction writing course to homeschooled teens; helping Tim with college apps (2 apps completed, 2 acceptances, 1 app started, 2 yet to begin); had my mom and sister here in September (not sure if I've written since then or not); still church treasurer; hosted a church-wide bonfire in October -- really enjoyed that; still homeschooling about 4.5 credits for Tim; starting to get ready to host the family's Thanksgiving; doing the lion's share of taking care of house, family, and pets (except guinea pigs); and when I get (or create) spare time, burying my nose in a book.

Also distressed because after keeping weight I'd lost off for over a year, about 5 pounds have found their way home....

Main thing in my life? God is still good.

That's all. (It's enough.)

Blech!

What a terrible week. I don't know if this is spiritual warfare and the good guys aren't doing too well, or if God didn't want me to try and do this retreat and I'm being punished for running ahead of him and acting on my own agenda.

Friday nights

I like our Friday night family tradition. It isn't particularly earth-shattering or even original (pizza and movie) but I like it anyway. Last night, the pizza was from Papa John's (Becky's favorite) and the movie was the first three shows from Season One of The Andy Griffith Show -- thanks, Netflix! Afterward, we finally burned all the sticks from the yard that have been piling up around the fire ring, then sat by the fire and read an Agatha Christie short story aloud.

As a mom, I definitely prefer that to sending my kids off to a Friday night high school football game, but I worry sometimes that they're missing out on things. Certainly, neither of them is interested in those things at this point. I just hope none of us ever look back on these years and truly regret the decision to homeschool.

Finally finished!

Definitely running a bit late on getting ready for school this year! I finally ordered the last needed curriculum today -- though that wasn't entirely my fault. It's brand new (can you say 'beta checkers!) and wasn't available for order yet.

I also wrote my notification letters over the weekend, but I still need to photocopy the standardized tests and deliver them to the school. Bittersweet - Tim's last notification ever, after doing so faithfully for the last 12 years.

I've got the orientation and first class sessions planned for my writing class, and the next half dozen or so partially planned. So that's still a lot of work to be done. I won't bother planning way in advance, though. It always ends up getting tweaked so much that it's just not worth it.

Advanced Creative Writing

I guess that's the title of the class I will be teaching to some homeschooled high schoolers this year. I had thought of calling it Fiction Writing, because usually creative writing includes poetry, and unfortunately, I can neither write nor teach poetry.

I started working on the lesson plans last night, and I am really looking forward to teaching the class. I love the idea of being able to encourage and help young writers, and frankly, I'm sure my own writing will benefit from revisiting some of the material, as well.

I will have to be extremely organized and disciplined this year, though, or I'll fall behind. This will be every week, and I think the teen Bible Study lessons will be every other week. Fortunately, for me at least, most of the heavy lifting of homeschooling will be Doug's work this year. That was the case last year, too. It's the math and science courses that take so much time. Their other classes are either elsewhere or not too difficult.

Plan your Work and Work your Plan

That's what I'm going to be trying to do in the weeks/months to come. My plan:

1) Use short stories to focus on specific weaknesses in my writing - most notably the inability to write truly nasty characters or to have truly nasty things happen to my protagonists.

2) Try to find publication venues for those stories to build up some credentials.

3) Keep working on Rachel's Heart and/or The Blue Flame.

47

Well, for my birthday I got three 4 things I asked for, and 2 that I didn't. I had asked for some small notebooks, citronella candles, and pepper spray. I also got a wonderful scented candle and a book - the newest book by Francine Rivers.

Which reminds me... I need to get back to my Writer of the Week posts!

Writer's Circle

I was so glad that our group met last night instead of the usual first Tuesday of the month. I had thought I would miss yet another meeting because we were on vacation from last Tuesday until Monday evening, and after going for a couple of years with missing very few meetings, this spring I found myself missing quite a few.

I'm especially glad I attended because there was some great discussion and great information last night. We were each asked to bring books or website info that are the resources we find most helpful as writers. I wish I'd been able to do a better job on the assignment -- I don't in general feel as though I've been a very faithful member in recent months -- but others had some wonderful information.

I've been saying this for at least a month, but I think I'm going to be able to get my life back into order and start writing again soon!

Books, books, books!

My life is beginning to calm down a bit, so I grabbed three books when I took Becky to the library today. Two were Kingsbury books that I don't think I've read yet, and the third was secular -- a historical fiction that sounded promising. They're in another room and I'm too lazy to go check the author/title, but hopefully I'll like it enough to write about it.

Yippee!

What a luxury to own (and have to take care of!) only one home.

God is so good and gracious (even when things don't work out as I would like, but somehow I seem more aware of it when it does.)

Nothing like a two month hiatus...

I've done almost no writing for the last few months; I feel like I've been a poor contributor to my writing circle, either not able to read the pieces, or just giving them a quick read and offering very shallow critiques.

BUT, we are moved into our new home (I love it!) although we still have a couple of minivan loads worth of stuff at the old house. By this weekend, however, we'll be moved entirely out of there and have it cleaned up for the new owners, who take possession next week.

Once I feel like the worst of the chaos is tamed in this house, I'm going back to trying to be faithful with my writing (and exercising.) I've still been reading novels -- I'm not sure I could live without it, frankly. But it's been more like a starving person gulping down food, than a connoisseur taking time to appreciate it. Every few weeks, I grab a handful of books at the library, and read 3-4 in a day or a day and a half, and then get back to work.

Fortunately, this is a temporary state of affairs.

Personal stuff, again.

The current situation as regards job/house:

Thursday, over half my husband's branch was laid off (ten out of nineteen). We knew it was coming, and knew it would be pretty bad. He's okay so far, but we believe there could be a couple more next week. Fortunately, enough issues have come up and required resolution with the purchase of the other house that we haven't yet had to acknowledge that his job is in question, and that if he gets laid off, we'll have to back out of the whole deal.

I sincerely hope that everything is completely settled by the end of next week. I definitely struggle with concentrating on my writing with all this going on.

Thursday was an especially rough day. I knew the layoffs were coming. Doug's two closest friends there, both believers and one his office mate, got laid off. Half of me was grieving for them, and feeling very tense about everything, but at the same time a realtor was bringing someone by the house that afternoon. So I had to force the other half of me to clean like mad.

Who says...

...that I can only work on one story at a time? Recently, after working on One Faith (tentative title for my Amish novel) for a while, I found myself thinking of my YAF story. So I just switched over, and worked on it for a while. Perhaps I'll give myself a little flexibility to work on whichever story is happening in my head at a given time.

That doesn't sound very professional, though. It seems to be inviting writer's block... because what do I do when none of them are happening in my head? But the problem has tended to be wanting to work on more than one story, as opposed to not having anything to write at all.

Anyway, this is going to be my new attempt at being more productive in my writing!

Writer of the Week

I wandered into the library the other day just desperate for a good story to take my mind off all the junk going on (as the final days before we have to close on the house purchase tick by and my husband's job is still not totally safe from layoffs!) Unfortunately, our library puts their shelving info at the bottom of the spine, which makes seeing the publisher a challenge. So I wandered around, until a book called The Lightkeeper's Daugher, by Colleen Coble caught my eye. I picked it up, as well as a very different looking book by the same author, called A Cry in the Night.

I can't say that I read exclusively Christian fiction, but I usually prefer it, so I'm always excited when I find a new author, and can say that I enjoyed both books tremendously, even though they're quite different from each other. The Lightkeeper's Daughter is historical romance, and A Cry in the Night is more suspense/thriller. Though they both have a strong suspense theme, I find that encouraging, as I've heard numerous times about the tendency to 'brand' authors so that publishers expect them to stay within one genre. My writing so far includes historical/biblical fiction, Amish romance, a futuristic thriller, and a YA/teen fantasy novel.

I spent some time poking around Colleen's website, and am also intrigued by the way she is exploring the world of e-publishing by offering downloads of her work.